GOSHEN — TyRochelle Haughton died because her boyfriend, David Stevenson, didn't want to lose control of her, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday as Stevenson's murder and arson trial began in Orange County Court.

Second witness of day was friend of Stevenson; he stopped at her house night before homicide. Told her TyRochelle threatened to leave him.— Heather Yakin (@HeatherYakin845) April 4, 2014

Next witness: a preschool teacher who was taking her class for a walk the morning of the homicide & fire.— Heather Yakin (@HeatherYakin845) April 4, 2014

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GOSHEN — TyRochelle Haughton died because her boyfriend, David Stevenson, didn't want to lose control of her, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday as Stevenson's murder and arson trial began in Orange County Court.

Haughton, 35, died on Jan. 15, 2013. Prosecutors say Stevenson attacked her with a hammer and a knife, fracturing her skull and leaving a 6-inch-wide, 2-inch deep gash in her neck, and that Stevenson then set the house ablaze.

Haughton was showering when Stevenson attacked her in the house they shared at 8 Mountain Ave. in Port Jervis, Assistant District Attorney Julie Mohl told the jury.

"TyRochelle's body was left on the bathroom floor," Mohl said. "She was left without clothes, without dignity, without life."

A hammer was found in the bathroom. A knife, missing from the butcher block, was found in the living room, with DNA on it that matched Stevenson's. Mohl said. In the kitchen, the stove was toppled, the knobs in the "on" position. Downstairs, clothing had been set on fire.

The body of the family dog, Jagger, lay outside the bathroom door, as if waiting for Haughton to get up, Mohl told the jury.

Haughton was preparing to leave Stevenson, she said. "He knew he had lost control of his girlfriend."

Mohl said jurors will see the note that Stevenson left behind, in which he declared in part that "I'll be gone, but the b—— coming with me."

Stevenson's lawyer, Jaime Santana, reminded the jurors that his client has a presumption of innocence, and he asked them to weigh the evidence — and whether Mohl proves her case beyond a reasonable doubt — using common sense.

"There were no witnesses to this alleged crime," Santana said. "No witnesses, no audiotaped evidence, no videotaped evidence, nothing."

He urged them to pay attention to what's said and shown, and also to what isn't said or shown.

The first witness, Port Jervis police Officer Robert Krentz, testified about finding Stevenson, burned and unconscious, in the street after a passer-by waved down the patrol car. Krentz said Stevenson had blood on his hands and socks.

Someone yelled that a woman and child were still in the burning house, Krentz said, so he ran to the house and crawled inside with a former Port Jervis fire chief.

They had to back out because of the heavy smoke that filled the house from floor to ceiling.